Last week our Co-Founder & CSO Hannah Brocke travelled to San Francisco to the largest AI event in the World, DreamForce. We are proud of having been selected by Salesforce as one of only three startups and present PlanBlue as one of the ‘AI for Good’ solutions.

This gave us the opportunity to share how we use Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to assess the state of marine ecosystems. Having large scale data with detailed insights is a game changer when it comes to marine management, and this can only be done using advanced data processing.

As part of her presentation Hannah showed how far we have come in our journey, from a diver operated prototype in 2017, to drone driven campaigns supporting nation-scale monitoring operations.

The scale of data collection, processing and analysis that we deliver with our partners, by using AI and autonomous vehicles, unlocks opportunities to leverage the immense potential of the ocean. As Hannah stresses the ocean is enormous and we are only so small, so we need to make sure we make the right interventions and allow the ocean to provide its essential life-giving powers.

Our solution is as much about scale, as it is about detail. With our ability to create detailed, geo-referenced maps at scale we can determine the health of ecosystems and the root causes of decline. This is an essential step towards large scale return of biodiversity, carbon sequestration and improved fishing conditions.

It’s important to us to receive the recognition from the AI community for the positive impact we can drive with our technology and would like to thank Salesforce for the prize money. This will be put to good use to further scale our solution and use cases.

A big thank you to the jury Mara Larson-Richard, Dounia Senawi, Mark Cuban and Edward Norton, and the organizers Brianne Lome, Steve Schwartz. A special shoutout to the World Economic Forum for spotlighting our work.

You can find a compilation of Hannah’s presentation here and the full Dreampitch event on Salesforce+.